Record-Setting Podcast Will Come To Pandora, But Ticketfly Acquisition Closer Also Reason For Stock Move

Shares of Pandora gained more than four percent Monday morning after the company

to be the exclusive streaming partner for ‘Serial,' a breakout podcast. Serial, a podcast that was first launched in October 2014, is a spinoff of the radio program This American Life. The podcast explores nonfiction stories and was the fastest podcast to reach five million downloads and streams in iTunes' history. "Serial Season One was a phenomenon and we at Pandora are among the many eagerly anticipating Season Two," said Brian McAndrews, CEO of Pandora in the press release. "We think our listeners will love Serial and look forward to helping build its growing number of fans." Season One will be made available in its entirety on November 24, the company added in its press release. Season Two's release remains "highly guarded" but will be released every Thursday at 6:00 AM ET – the same time they became available through the podcast feed. Separately, Pandora

it has completed and finalized the acquisition of Ticketfly.

Rich Tullo ,a media analyst at Albert Fried that covers Pandora's stock, told Benzinga that a Pandora-Serial deal "makes sense," and positions the company "closer to being relevant" in the car. The analyst also suggested that Pandora closing its acquisition of Ticketfly contributed towards the outperformance in shares Monday morning. An analyst at Barrington Research told Benzinga that Pandora's decision to stream Serial shows management will use its platform to monetize more than just songs. The analyst also suggested that Pandora's stock performance on Monday is attributed to the closing of the Ticketfly deal. The analyst added that the deal won't have a financial impact in the near-term but sees its implications as being "positive" over time. On the other hand, Wedbush's Michael Pachter told Benzinga that Pandora's acquisition of Ticketfly "will be a disaster" as his estimates suggests Ticketfly users overlap only three percent with Pandora users. Pachter also said that shares of Pandora were acting like a "dead cat bounce" on Monday as the company's agreement to stream Serial "has no fundamental impact" on the business.